PHILADELPHIA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), the award-winning data research platform and business intelligence tool for corporate, academic and government institutions worldwide, is proud to announce the winners of the Wharton-WRDS Outstanding Paper Award for the MARC Conference. The award winners, Jarrad Harford, Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington; Ambrus Kecskes, Schulich School of Business, York University; and Sattar Mansi, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech examined the effect of investors with long investment horizons on corporate decision-making. Their paper, Do Long-Term Investors Improve Corporate Decision Making, suggests that long-term investors restrain numerous corporate misbehaviors, and strengthen internal corporate governance. WRDS, a part of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, is trusted by universities across the globe and fundamental to accelerate impactful research and enhance learning.

“WRDS is committed to recognizing the highest caliber research and we congratulate them on their outstanding investigation,” said Robert Zarazowski, Managing Director of WRDS. “Helping expand the field of knowledge is central to our work at WRDS, and it’s a natural fit for us to sponsor this Wharton-WRDS Outstanding Paper Award.”

Harford, Kecskes, and Mansi showed that investors with long investment horizons have the capacity and motivation to monitor corporate managers, and in doing so, help encourage corporate managers toward policy decisions that are consistent with shareholder value maximization. Their empirical evidence indicates that long-term investors both restrain corporate misbehaviors such as earnings management and financial fraud, while strengthening internal corporate governance. The result is that long-term investors help shareholders benefit from higher stock returns, greater profitability, and lower risk.

“It is a true honor for us to receive this Outstanding Paper Award and we are grateful to WRDS for recognizing our work in this way,” said Ambrus Kecskes. “It is always gratifying to have one’s work commended by peers and we hope that this research informs additional scholarship in this area.”

About WRDSWharton Research Data Services (WRDS) is the award-winning research platform and business intelligence tool for over 30,000 corporate, academic, government and nonprofit clients at over 375 institutions in 33 countries. WRDS provides the user with one location to access over 200 terabytes of data across multiple disciplines including Accounting, Banking, Economics, Finance, ESG, and Statistics. Flexible data delivery options include a powerful web query method that reduces research time, the WRDS Cloud for executing research and strategy development, and the WRDS client server using PCSAS, Matlab, Python and R. Our Analytics team, doctoral-level support and rigorous data review and validation give clients the confidence to tailor research within complex databases and create a wide range of reliable data models.

From partnerships with data vendors, to our own tools including the WRDS SEC Analytics Suite — WRDS is the global gold standard in data management and research, all backed by the credibility and leadership of the Wharton School.

About the Wharton SchoolFounded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. With a broad global community and one of the most published business school faculties, Wharton creates economic and social value around the world. The Wharton School has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 9,000 participants in executive education programs annually and a powerful alumni network of 93,000 graduates.